BELON — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

Thanks to Black Series, Restaurant Week of Black Sheep Restaurants, my friend and I were able to enjoy a really nice French dinner at Belon without breaking our bank.

Our feast started with this little puff, which was a finger food with delicious savory custard inside. A bite of gourmet. We ordered a glass of rose each to go with the dinner.

Both my friend and I were huge bread lovers, we got carried away by this delicious House-made Naturally Leavened Bread with Salted Brittany Butter and ignored the mains for a bit. The cube of butter was so therapeutic in terms of its shape, colour and taste. And the house-made bread was absolutely lovely! The bread itself was very fluffy with crunchy side. And the warm bread melted the butter which made the spread really easy. We love it dearly.

This plate of “Saucisson de Bigorre” was nice, not too chewy nor salty. Great to go with the bread.

Belon works its magic to make me enjoy food that I don’t usually eat - celery. This Sweet Shrimp with Chinese Celery was a bowl of creamy puree with a thin layer of celery jelly at the bottom. I have to say, the taste of celery in this dish was so good that I enjoyed eating every spoonful of it! Very refreshing and delightful!

This Hamachi “Salad Nicoise” was really great! The hamachi was fresh and delicious. I really adore the fish. And underneath the fish was goodies like egg, small tuna fish (?), potato and veggies. Definitely not to miss as they were all nicely prepared.

This Hokkai Scallop with Shio Kombu and Pomelo was even better. The Hokkai scallop was wrapped in a house-made ravioli. The scallop was really meaty and fresh. Love it! And the creamy puree on the side was absolutely fantastic! The pomelo added so much freshness to the sauce, which was good to eat on its own or mixed with the scallop. Absolutely amazing!

We were presented with this Roasted Chicken before the kitchen chopped it up and served it like this. I like how they use the claw to simulate the head of the chicken. A good roast for real. Crispy skin wrapping really tender chicken meat.

I am a big fan of potato, this little pot of “Petits Pois a la Francaise” was really satisfying! The lemongrass (?) on top made great seasoning. The creamy mash and peas were so tasty! I wish I have more vocab to describe how great this meal is!

Dessert was Belon’s signature Mille Feuille. It was really crispy that we were able to separately it vertically with our spoons, and enjoyed the flaky pastry. Yum yum! You know the food is great when the whole table stop talking to focus on the eating.

The complementary Madeleine was very delightful! It was served warm, and the crispy shell wrapping warm fluffy cake made a perfect end to this...

Dining time/date：18:30 July 21st 2023

Food: Honestly for a Micheline 1 star the course lacked creativity. While all the ingredients were fresh, they were simply put together nicely, demonstrated little culinary technique nor innovative combination/flavour. Also for the price of 2K per person, the ingredients used were not matched to the charge. I have had less costly 1 Micheline star meals that surprised me in ingredients/flavour combinations. As you can also see from the picture, the presentation for 3/7 dishes in a a row were repeated in that they came to pour the sauce at table. First time - fancy, 2nd time err ok, 3rd time boring.

Service: Few failing points the waitress instead of trying, always give a upfront “No” any anything - even on dietary requirement. The degustation had a half-lobster, which one of my colleague is allergic to, I am amazed that her initial response was “no we cannot swap”. After we press it, she then checked with the chef and came back advising “it’s 4 of you, therefore must 2 swap to fish” that was it, without explaining why it has to be two, then we later figured out ourselves, it’s 1 lobster get split to half, therefore, 2 diner have to have fish.

As we progress to dessert, she came again advising us that she has to serve all dessert dishes together as we must return the table at 8:30 (we sat down at 6:30). 1. Time limit was never communicated during reservation nor stated on the confirmation. 2. This time limit was also never communicated as we came in. 3. I have not heard any Micheline restaurant that imposes such time limit for “degustation course” We told her we were never informed upfront and can we have the table any longer, again her response was a upfront “NO”

The duty manger (who is perhaps 185) came and stand next to our table at 8:30 while we were still carrying our conversation. We had to stop our conversation to allow him a window to speak, he asked “how was everything ” we gave him the feedback reflecting our experience. He continued to stand there not saying a thing. We therefore ask “is there anything more or you want the table back?” He then said “I just wanted to hear your feedback, you can stay” - but didn’t we already gave you the feedback? NB. The manager discounted two meals on good will as a compensation.

Environment: Overall is chic and trendy with nice ambient. But the table we sat - first table next to the entrance, their staff kept walking around our table to get access their storage/glassware through a curtin. Very distracting...

I didn't think that the high point of my culinary journey through Hong Kong would be defined at a modern French bistro, but it did. Belon was on point on most all the elements that I regard in a fine dining restaurant -- professionalism and courtesy of the staff, execution of dishes (duh...), vibe/energy of the place, etc.

Where do I begin -- I ordered the tasting menu as I wanted to try as many dishes as possible without going a la carte. The server was very flexible and recommended a couple things that I should try based on my preferences and dislikes. And, the meal was perfect -- a series of amuse bouches, sourdough bread so aritsanly prepared, the ikura toast, the foie gra torchon with peach gelee, sweetbread, and the mielle feuille. The execution, flavor, and the presentation were near perfect -- almost got me confused if a bistro should be this perfect...shouldn't it be rustic, rough around the edges? :)

And the service -- the staff was obviously very well trained and educated. They did a fabulous job explaining each dish as they presented it to me, and did not forget to connect, and check in to see how everything was tasting. I know it's small, but it counts (for me anyway). The bartender (I forget his name) was also a secret weapon of the staff. His demeanor was so humble, yet his knowledge on cocktails and local ingredients were deep and vast. At the end of the meal, I basically asked him to pull an absinthe cocktail out of his butt -- but he gladly obliged and out-delivered. Amazing.

Ah, Hong Kong, you now have another dining scene that I will be jealous and drooling over. Belon will be yet another reason for me to come back to knock on Hong Kong's...